Chapter 187 - Tracing The Formation

Following senior Xukong's advice, Lin Mu tried it again. He extended his spirit sense all the way to the place where he had observed the node and started tracing it from there again. Alas, he made a mistake again and lost track of it again.

~Sigh~

'I need to think of a better method.' Lin Mu thought.

Lin Mu didn't know why he was doing this. He just felt like this was something new and interesting, thus he wanted to know more about it. He had seen the beast storage treasure and knew that it had formations on it too. But their level was too high for him to be able to sense them.

Now that he had this opportunity to observe and study formation here, he didn't want to stop. Luckily it was night time and the place Lin Mu was in was a rather desolate part of the town, where people rarely went past in day time not to say at night.

After a few more attempts, Lin Mu decided to chant the severing heart sutra while tracing the formation. He had already tried the calming heart sutra, but it was not suitable for this situation where he needed to be completely still.

This time Lin Mu had better success and was able to go much further than before.

'Yes! This is it!' Lin Mu shouted inwardly in excitement.

But just as he thought this, he had accidentally stopped chanting the severing heart sutra and had faltered in his concentration. Swearing to himself that he'll focus better this time, Lin Mu tried again. He had been here for about an hour now and the snow had started falling again.

In his latest attempt, Lin Mu was able to trace the branch of the formation to the next node and found it to be present on the wall of one of the old shops. He walked closer and touched it with his hand.

"Nothing… Just as Senior said." Lin Mu muttered to himself.

When Lin Mu touched the wall, he could not feel it to be any different from a normal wall. But when he touched it with his spirit sense, he could see the difference in the texture. It was as if there were countless patterns made on the wall that could only be felt by him.

"That should be the second node," Xukong informed upon seeing Lin Mu feeling a little lost.

Lin Mu's eyes lit up at this, and he kept on exploring further. He must have spent nearly two hours there at this point and had forgotten about time. Because he was standing still for most of the time, a layer of snow had settled on his head and shoulders by now.

The sky above him was thickly covered by clouds, and all the stars and moon were hidden. The only source of light in the area was from far away lamps that were lit up. It was even more dark in the street Lin Mu was in and there was only a single torch burning at the entrance of it.

Because people rarely entered it, there wasn't anyone keeping an eye on this place either and thus had no one to light up torches here. Most of the torch holders were empty and had no torches placed in them. While those that did have torches in them had snuffed out a long time ago.

Because it was not a main street, it did not have any street lamps either. In the rest of the town, at least in the main areas, tall poles had been erected along the roads, from which lamps hung. These lamps were maintained by some people assigned by the town center and had to be refilled with oil every day.

Because maintaining the upkeep of so many lamps was difficult due to oil being expensive, the street lamps were only lit alternatively. One could also attribute this to the former town had not been taking care of the town and rather embezzling the funds assigned to it.

If the town head could steal the funds that were for the welfare of the people, then embezzling funds for the maintaining of the town was nothing compared to that. While Lin Mu was a lot bothered by this fact in the past, right now this situation was coming to his benefit.

Because if anyone were to see him, there would be likely to ask questions. Questions that Lin Mu would prefer to not be asked and did not want to explain. Over the past few days, as he engrossed himself in cultivation, Lin Mu realized that he was now getting used to it and was preferred to be alone.

Well… as alone as he could be, since senior Xukong was with him always.

Another hour passed by and Lin Mu was still standing there. He had barely moved, and the snow around him had gotten thicker. The snow layer had now reached a little above his ankles, and frost had settled on his eyebrows.

Every time he took a breath, a small cloud of steam was expelled from his nose and mouth. If there was anyone else standing out in the snow for such a while, they would have been incredibly cold and would have been shivering. But Lin Mu was not bothered by it and stood still.

He felt no stiffness or soreness in his legs, nor did he mind the layer of snow on his head. Strong winds would blow from time to time, removing the snow from his head, yet a few minutes later more would settle down there.

Even Lin Mu did not realize this, but he had entered a strange sense of mind. For him, the only things that existed right now were his spirit sense and the formation array in front of him. He had even forgotten why he was doing this, and his only aim right now was to reveal more and more of the illusory formation.

Just by doing this, he was unknowingly increasing his understanding and control of the spirit sense. Although he could not comprehend the runes from which the formations were made out of, he was still starting to get a rudimentary level of understanding of them.

While Lin Mu was engrossed in this, Xukong was thinking about something else.

"This kid… his talent in formations is monstrous…"